A parasitic cancer or transmissible cancer is a cancer cell or cluster of cancer cells that can be transmitted from animal to animal. Cancer is not normally a contagious disease, but there are two known exceptions: one is in dogs, and the other is in the Tasmanian devil.

Devil facial tumor disease is spread through biting, rough sex, and sharing a meal. It causes lumps and lesions on the face that turn into tumors and can spread to the whole body, and can interfere with eating to the point that the animal starves to death. It's wiped out 20-50% of the Devil population. ]]>
It's a Sick World: Weird Biology info-dump threadhttp://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=188301#Comment_188301
http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=188301#Comment_188301Fri, 11 Sep 2009 17:22:32 -0500Brandon Seifert
New rat-eating carnivorous plant discovered; named after David Attenborough.

These transparent glass sculptures were created to contemplate the global impact of each disease and to consider how the artificial colouring of scientific imagery affects our understanding of phenomena. Jerram is exploring the tension between the artworks' beauty and what they represent, their impact on humanity.

[...] The sculptures were designed in consultation with virologists from the University of Bristol using a combination of different scientific photographs and models.

Haast's Eagle co-existed with the Maori for around two hundred years before becoming extinct roughly 500 years ago probably because the Maori wiped out the Moa, the gigantic flightless birds the eagles preyed on.

Unable to break open bee hives themselves they guide animals such as bears and also humans to beehives. Once the animals break open the hive and eat the honey, the honeyguides move in to eat the beeswax and also the bee larvae. ]]>
It's a Sick World: Weird Biology info-dump threadhttp://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=188401#Comment_188401
http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=188401#Comment_188401Sat, 12 Sep 2009 10:08:21 -0500steevo
Ultramicrobacterium:

These super-small cells are extremely suitable for life on otherwise untenable planets, with their minuscule food requirements, extreme resilience, and adaptability to micro-niches which couldn't support even regular sized bacteria. As well as existing where others couldn't, these sublilliputian lifeforms could persist on planets where catastrophes wiped out everything else.

(I once used them as an example in an argument with my Militant Vegetarian Ex-Girlfriend. She was arguing that it wasn't humane to eat animals, because they feel pain. She didn't like it when I asked if it was okay to eat Mole Rats because they don't feel pain.) ]]>
It's a Sick World: Weird Biology info-dump threadhttp://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=188426#Comment_188426
http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=188426#Comment_188426Sat, 12 Sep 2009 14:23:39 -0500Brandon Seifert
HeLa Cells.

Back in the '50s, a woman named Henrietta Lacks died of cervical cancer — which is to say, her was infected with HPV and the virus copied some of its genes into her cells, which went rogue. A scientist took a biopsy of her cancer and propagated the cells, and eventually released them commercially around the world. Her cells are "immortal," meaning they can just keep dividing indefinitely if the conditions are right for them to live. They've been used to develop a vaccine for polio and for research on AIDS, Ebola, cancer, radiation exposure, gene mapping, and the effects of zero gravity on the human body.

Her cells are still being used in medical research. At this point, there have been way more HeLa cells propagated than there were cells in Henrietta Lacks' body. They've also adapted to live in tissue culture plates, and they tend to spread and contaminate other samples.

One evolutionary biologist has pointed out that HeLa cells are incompatible with human cells, they fill a niche in an ecosystem, and they spread by themselves — so doesn't that make them their own species? He suggested the species name Helacyton gartleri.

Another interesting tidbit about HeLa cells: They were taken and propagated without Henrietta's permission. Which is totally legal in the U.S. — under U.S. law, biological materials that come from diagnosis, surgery or therapy are the doctor's property, not the patient's. ]]>
It's a Sick World: Weird Biology info-dump threadhttp://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=188428#Comment_188428
http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=188428#Comment_188428Sat, 12 Sep 2009 14:30:33 -0500Kosmopolit
Pain-free animals could take suffering out of farming

My favorite mole rat fact is that their burrowing teeth are outside of the mouth so they breathe through their mouths while tunnelling, ]]>
It's a Sick World: Weird Biology info-dump threadhttp://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=188433#Comment_188433
http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=188433#Comment_188433Sat, 12 Sep 2009 14:36:47 -0500Kosmopolit
"robot"

Slime molds are simple but very interesting creatures that are neither plants nor animals. They're usually sessile but can more to find new sources of food. They have rudimentary senses that respond to difference in light, temperature, moisture and so on in deciding which way to move.

So a British scientist has build a logic gate, the basic element of a computer, where the working liquid is an actual living slime mold. ]]>
It's a Sick World: Weird Biology info-dump threadhttp://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=188448#Comment_188448
http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=188448#Comment_188448Sat, 12 Sep 2009 15:38:37 -0500KosmopolitBut if you fail to treat it and the victim has a compromised immune system you end up with a condition known as Norwegian Scabies.

That's where the mites burrow into the body and pretty much eat the victim alive.

A parasitic twin (also known as an asymmetrical or unequal conjoined twin) is the result of the processes that produce vanishing twins and conjoined twins, and may represent a continuum between the two. Parasitic twins occur when a twin embryo begins developing in utero, but the pair does not fully separate, and one embryo maintains dominant development at the expense of the other. Unlike conjoined twins, one ceases development during gestation and is vestigial to a mostly fully-formed, otherwise healthy individual twin. The undeveloped twin is defined as parasitic, rather than conjoined, because it is incompletely formed or wholly dependent on the body functions of the complete fetus.

To become unpalatable, the insects squirt toxic blood out of gaps in their body and make themselves sick by throwing up food they've just eaten.Link ]]>
It's a Sick World: Weird Biology info-dump threadhttp://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=188655#Comment_188655
http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=188655#Comment_188655Sun, 13 Sep 2009 18:44:10 -0500Dario
Vrolik Museum. Discusses Cephalothoracoiliopagus "Janus faced" twins, whereby the two halves of each twin's face join up to make up two separate composite faces, on the sides of each head, rather than the front.

As with other deep-sea fish, they can have antennas with bioluminescent ends to lure prey;

There are various types, all of them hideous;

And in most of them the male of the species is one-tenth of the female's size and is permanently attached to her body.

Back when Anglerfish were first discovered, Icthyologists were unable to work out how they kept alive when all they could find were hideous females with hideous skin cancer. Further examination, however, found the 'tumours' to in fact be the remains of the male Anglers, originally mistaken for an entire separate species. When a male has initiated Mating, he clamps himself onto the female with his mouth and fuses his blood system with hers. Having used up his purpose in life, most of his vital organs drop off until he is nothing but a penis and two testes jutting out of the female's body.

Hence, a female is able to swim around with great collections of fused partners all over her body, re-injecting her with fresh sperm every hour on the hour and thus ensuring continual genetic variability. The minimum of males attached to a female before her death is, on average, six.

Someone have the decency to douse me in oil when they find out how to replicate all that with humans... ]]>
It's a Sick World: Weird Biology info-dump threadhttp://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=188778#Comment_188778
http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=188778#Comment_188778Mon, 14 Sep 2009 15:16:23 -0500icelandbobSnake with foot found in China

But in reading Epidemic by Dr. Robert Baker tonight, I found out something I wasn't aware of — people with the genes that make them vulnerable to auto-immune disease also have increased resistance to tuberculosis. As Baker says, "In other words an epidemic of auto-immunity is the price we have paid as a species for resistance to infectious epidemics."

With wonderful captions, such as: "This strung-out looking thing is the aye aye lemur, which appears to have crawled its way out of the rancid vagina of a Victorian prostitute and went straight to work hiding in children's bedrooms to steal their dreams." ]]>
It's a Sick World: Weird Biology info-dump threadhttp://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=192443#Comment_192443
http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=192443#Comment_192443Sun, 04 Oct 2009 02:39:45 -0500Brandon Seifert
Harlequin type ichthyosis:

In sufferers of the disease, the skin contains massive, diamond-shaped scales, and tends to have a blue color. In addition, the eyes, ears, mouth, and other appendages may be abnormally contracted. The scaly keratin greatly limits the child's movement. Because the skin is cracked where normal skin would fold, it is easily pregnable by bacteria and other contaminants, resulting in serious risk of fatal infection.

Sufferers are known as harlequin fetuses, harlequin babies, or harlequins.

Don't go searching for the topic on Google Image search if you have a weak stomach. That drawing doesn't really give a good idea of how gruesome the condition looks in real life. ]]>
It's a Sick World: Weird Biology info-dump threadhttp://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=192601#Comment_192601
http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=192601#Comment_192601Mon, 05 Oct 2009 06:27:06 -0500Kosmopolit

"By creating a lamp that can only be used once, the user must consider when light is needed the most, forcing them to rethink how wasteful they are with energy, and how precious it is."

Luminol is the secret ingredient behind the glow. It's a chemical forensic scientists use to check for blood, glowing bright blue when coming into contact with the iron in red blood cells.

The neck-less baby with its head almost totally sunk into the upper part of the body and with extraordinarily large eyeballs literally popping out of the eye-sockets, was born to Nir Bahadur Karki and Suntali Karki at the Gaurishnkar Hospital in Charikot. The Karki couple is a permanent resident of Dolakha’s Bhirkot VDC.

“the baby has a condition called anencephaly, a neural tube defect (like the cyclops baby), with no proper brain formation. The baby would have died a few days later. That’s why women are advised to take folate in early pregnancy.”

So naturally scientists are researching the spiders with hopes to develop another drug for ED. Viagra and its colleagues work by stopping the chemical that makes erections go away; the venom in this spider works through a different mechanism, by ramping up the chemical that's responsible for erections in the first place.

Now the above is a tame image in comparison to some of the fun things Google images throws at me when I enter the phrase 'Botfly'. Oh yes.

Thank you Mother Nature, you fucking bitch, for creating a fly that wants to lay its SPAWN in my FLESH so that it can EAT ME from the INSIDE OUT. ]]>
It's a Sick World: Weird Biology info-dump threadhttp://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=195050#Comment_195050
http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=195050#Comment_195050Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:48:08 -0500Brandon SeifertParasitoids do the same thing, but kill the host. Take the jewel wasp, for instance.

emale wasps of this species sting a roach (specificially a Periplaneta americana, Periplaneta australasiae or Nauphoeta rhombifolia[1]) twice, delivering venom. A 2003 study[2] proved using radioactive labeling that the wasp stings precisely into specific ganglia of the roach. She delivers an initial sting to a thoracic ganglion and injects venom to mildly and reversibly paralyze the front legs of the insect. This facilitates the second venomous sting at a carefully chosen spot in the roach's head ganglia (brain), in the section that controls the escape reflex. As a result of this sting, the roach will first groom extensively, and then become sluggish and fail to show normal escape responses.[3] In 2007 it was reported that the venom of the wasp blocks receptors for the neurotransmitter octopamine.[4]

The wasp proceeds to chew off half of each of the roach's antennae.[1] Researchers believe that the Wasp chews off the antenna to replenish fluids or possibly to regulate the amount of venom because too much could kill and too little would let the victim recover before the larva has grown. The wasp, which is too small to carry the roach, then leads the victim to the wasp's burrow, by pulling one of the roach's antennae in a manner similar to a leash. Once they reach the burrow, the wasp lays a white egg, about 2 mm long, on the roach's abdomen. It then exits and proceeds to fill in the burrow entrance with pebbles, more to keep other predators out than to keep the roach in.

With its escape reflex disabled, the stung roach will simply rest in the burrow as the wasp's egg hatches after about three days. The hatched larva lives and feeds for 4–5 days on the roach, then chews its way into its abdomen and proceeds to live as an endoparasitoid. Over a period of eight days, the wasp larva consumes the roach's internal organs in an order which guarantees that the roach will stay alive, at least until the larva enters the pupal stage and forms a cocoon inside the roach's body. Eventually the fully-grown wasp emerges from the roach's body to begin its adult life. Development is faster in the warm season.

Still, I bring to your attention a creature you may NOT want to swim near if it is horny, desperate, and has already lowered its standards: the Greater Hooked Squid (Moroteuthis ingens)

If this was a movie, I would call it 'Attack of the rapist sperm' and get Noburo Iguchi to direct.

"With ... the Moroteuthis ingens, the spermatophores are introduced in a more peaceful way. ‘With this species the spermatophores penetrate the skin independently. They probably do that with the help of an enzyme-like substance that dissolves tissue.’ Hoving is the first to be able to prove that these sperm packets are able to penetrate the skin under their own steam. He discovered this when he experimentally placed spermatophores on the skin of just-caught individuals. His results are supported by an incident in Japan, where someone had to have an operation after eating squid to remove a spermatophore that lodged in his throat.

One species of cephalopod, the mimic squid, uses its color-changing abilities and its felxible body to assist its mimicry.

But it doesn't just mimic one thing, the mimic squid can imitate a whole range of different fish and even sea snakes (by hiding it's body and six legs in a hole and putting the remaining two legs in single line.

Furthermore, it chooses what to imitate based on the species it's trying to fool.

For example, it only imitates the sea snake in the presence of the damselfish which is prayed on by sea snakes. ]]>
It's a Sick World: Weird Biology info-dump threadhttp://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=197714#Comment_197714
http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=197714#Comment_197714Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:52:14 -0500RenThing
10' long Great White almost bitten in half by a larger sharke.

They say the gesture allows a bug named Cytomegalovirus, which is dangerous in pregnancy, to be passed from man to woman to give her time to build up protection against it.

The bug is found in saliva and normally causes no problems. But it can be extremely dangerous if caught while pregnant and can kill unborn babies or cause birth defects.

Writing in the journal Medical Hypotheses, researcher Dr Colin Hendrie from the University of Leeds, said: "Female inoculation with a specific male's cytomegalovirus is most efficiently achieved through mouth-to-mouth contact and saliva exchange, particularly where the flow of saliva is from the male to the typically shorter female."

I'd also never thought about the fact that kissing someone shorter than you probably means they're getting more of your saliva than you're getting theirs. Yummy. ]]>
It's a Sick World: Weird Biology info-dump threadhttp://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=199224#Comment_199224
http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=199224#Comment_199224Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:04:10 -0600DMir.Anda
article in the current National Geographic on extinct dinosaur-eating crocodiles. There's also this feature on weird crocs from the Sahara - extinction, sometimes, has its advantages, for i would not want to have to run from dogcrocs when i get back home. ]]>
It's a Sick World: Weird Biology info-dump threadhttp://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=199324#Comment_199324
http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=199324#Comment_199324Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:10:27 -0600Brandon SeifertHere's the link. ]]>
It's a Sick World: Weird Biology info-dump threadhttp://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=200030#Comment_200030
http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=200030#Comment_200030Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:25:25 -0600DarioThree spectacled bears at Leipzig Zoo are losing their fur, with the worst being entirely hairless. Experts thus far haven't been able to work out what the cause is. Suggestions have included disease, dietary habits, change of natural climate, or a combination of these things.

The experiments showed this fecal armor could successfully repel predators. Often the predators did not even investigate the potential meals, presumably because the beetles fooled them into believing they were just turds.

And yes, those are legs coming out the eyes.My evolution classes out here have been fun. ]]>
It's a Sick World: Weird Biology info-dump threadhttp://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=209413#Comment_209413
http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=209413#Comment_209413Thu, 17 Dec 2009 06:13:56 -0600chenryhen
The Future is Wild. ]]>
It's a Sick World: Weird Biology info-dump threadhttp://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=209418#Comment_209418
http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=209418#Comment_209418Thu, 17 Dec 2009 07:28:55 -0600roadscumIt's a Sick World: Weird Biology info-dump threadhttp://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=210157#Comment_210157
http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=210157#Comment_210157Tue, 22 Dec 2009 16:42:49 -0600Kosmopolit
A group of University of Kansas researchers working with Chinese colleagues have discovered a venomous, birdlike raptor that thrived some 128 million years ago in China. This is the first report of venom in the lineage that leads to modern birds.

"This thing is a venomous bird for all intents and purposes," said Larry Martin, KU professor and curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Institute. "It was a real shock to us and we made a special trip to China to work on this."

http://www.physorg.com/news180635335.html ]]>
It's a Sick World: Weird Biology info-dump threadhttp://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=210372#Comment_210372
http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=210372#Comment_210372Thu, 24 Dec 2009 06:30:00 -0600Kosmopolit
If ever there was a story that illustrated the lengths a male will go to have sex, it is this. Male Muscovy ducks have a penis up to 40 centimetres long – almost half the length of their body – but that's just one of the twists and turns in the story of how female and male ducks try to outsmart each other.

A female Muscovy duck chooses a mate based on her assessment of his courtship and plumage. But rejected males don't give up easily, and can force copulation on unwilling females. The long, flexible penis helps them do so.

So females have evolved to wrest back control of copulation, says Patricia Brennan at Yale University. "The males and females become locked in this arms race, each trying to dominate the outcome. It's fascinating to find such a clear and obvious example of sexual conflict."

...

Brennan's team also timed the male's penis eversion, which took a mere one-third of a second – around 60 times faster than was previously thought (see video above). "This definitely gives the males a mechanism by which they can copulate," says Brennan, who was taken aback by the speed. "To be totally honest, I'm still in shock," she says.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18316-ducks-fight-the-battle-of-the-sexes-in-their-genitals.html ]]>
It's a Sick World: Weird Biology info-dump threadhttp://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=210423#Comment_210423
http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=210423#Comment_210423Thu, 24 Dec 2009 17:31:32 -0600Lazarus99 ]]>
It's a Sick World: Weird Biology info-dump threadhttp://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=210445#Comment_210445
http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=210445#Comment_210445Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:45:11 -0600William GeorgeSomeone is going to be making a very scary furry porn out of that... if they haven't already. ]]>
It's a Sick World: Weird Biology info-dump threadhttp://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=210448#Comment_210448
http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=210448#Comment_210448Fri, 25 Dec 2009 01:15:08 -0600Brandon Seifert ]]>
It's a Sick World: Weird Biology info-dump threadhttp://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=210985#Comment_210985
http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=210985#Comment_210985Wed, 30 Dec 2009 17:06:01 -0600Kosmopolit
The relationship between the tropical acacia plant and 'guard' ants that defend it from predators has long been a fascinating example of symbiosis in nature: the ants feed on the acacia's sugary nectar, and in turn aggressively sting and bite other animals that would eat and damage the plant. But it turns out that this arrangement might not be as friendly as previously thought. New research reveals that the acacia plant actually produces a chemical that drives the ants into a defensive frenzy--alternately persuading them to fight to protect it and banishing them from its flowers when convenient.

The BBC spoke with Dr. Nigel Raine about his findings on the subject, and he explained how the ants greatly assist the acacias.

"They guard the plants they live on," said Dr Raine. "If other animals try to come and feed on the rich, sugary nectar, they will attack them." In Africa, one type of ant-guard, known as Crematogaster, will even attack large herbivores that attempt to eat the plant.

And yes, that includes mammals vastly larger than them: "If a giraffe starts to eat the leaves of an acacia that is inhabited by ants, the ants will come out and swarm on to its face, biting and stinging," he said. "Eventually, the giraffe will get fed up and move off."

Living the Good Life of an Acacia Guard AntIn return, the ants get more than just access to the rich, sugary nectar of the plant. They also get protection, and in some cases, a home customized specifically for them--the acacia provides a hollowed-out, reinforced structures for the ants to nest in. The acacia also provides the ants with a sort of easy-access VIP pass to the nectar, preventing them from making the longer trip to the flower to feed.

When the temptation potentially becomes too much--like when the acacia needs to produce extra pollen to draw in pollinators--things get ugly. The acacia, as the BBC notes, resorts to 'chemical warfare'. It produces a chemical that's physically repellent to the ants, keeping them out of the flower and driving them into a frenzy.

Dr Raine and his colleagues found that the plants with the closest relationships with ants - those that provided homes for their miniature guard army - produced the chemicals that were most effective at keeping the ants at bay.

The chemical is thought to be in the pollen itself--and when it's carried off by the bees and hummingbirds, the ants return, no longer repelled.

The acacia and its guard ants no doubt have a fascinating symbiotic relationship--but the surprising use of chemicals to govern that relationship could perhaps have even more fascinating ramifications for the study of other natural pairings. What else out there is being duped and tamed by chemicals?

Of course, the really interesting this is that it's related a family of invertetrates known as penis worms.

]]>
It's a Sick World: Weird Biology info-dump threadhttp://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=229952#Comment_229952
http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=229952#Comment_229952Thu, 08 Apr 2010 00:12:00 -0500David MatthewI find the fascinating thing about the anaerobic critters is that they aren't a new development or evolutionary path. They've likely been here longer than we have. And yet, generalized theories of biology posited that oxygen was required for complex life to exist. This is now obviously wrong, and opens up vistas both in the solar system -- we no longer have to limit ourselves to looking for blue spheres to find life -- but also begs the question as to what else about our assumptions about life's fundamentals might be mistaken? ]]>
It's a Sick World: Weird Biology info-dump threadhttp://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=229968#Comment_229968
http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=229968#Comment_229968Thu, 08 Apr 2010 04:32:11 -0500William GeorgeArse eels?! YAAAAG!

Second: That is a big-assed cockroach.

Third: I have no doubt that other planets, even ones in our solar system, have all sort of interesting life that we may not recognize as life. Problem is, people want aliens you can have pony-tail sex with, so we'll never be able to find out because no one will put the time and money into it. ]]>
It's a Sick World: Weird Biology info-dump threadhttp://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=230406#Comment_230406
http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=230406#Comment_230406Sat, 10 Apr 2010 06:25:52 -0500icelandbob
an 8 legged frog. that is all....

On reading the link i notice they have hydrogenosomes instead of mitochondria and produce molecular hydrogen as a byproduct of ATP generation (please forgive the grammar, i've been at the cider again). Nosing around Wikipedia i notice these hydrogenosomes occur in a few other organisms including some fungi. I wonder, with a deft bit of genetic cutting and splicing might we end up with bacteria that could ferment organic waste (sewage, food scraps and the like) to produce the hydrogen that powers our nice clean fuel-cell cars? ]]>
It's a Sick World: Weird Biology info-dump threadhttp://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=230508#Comment_230508
http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=230508#Comment_230508Sun, 11 Apr 2010 07:22:06 -0500KosmopolitIt's a Sick World: Weird Biology info-dump threadhttp://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=230512#Comment_230512
http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=230512#Comment_230512Sun, 11 Apr 2010 08:01:01 -0500roadscum
Wikipedia article says hydrogenosomes are thought to have evolved from anaerobic bacteria or archaea (sort of a bit like bacteria but different if i understand correctly).

Today, most Loricifera have mitochondria, three known species have hydrogenosomes. Wikipedia says Loricifera are not known to be present in the fossil record so i imagine it's a bit difficult to say how long they've been around. Which came first? Difficult for me to say, not really my field of expertise.

Now, if you want to know the best way to get from Barking to Norwich... ]]>
It's a Sick World: Weird Biology info-dump threadhttp://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=231501#Comment_231501
http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=231501#Comment_231501Thu, 15 Apr 2010 21:11:42 -0500Kosmopolit
Three years ago, after a young Peruvian girl bathed in a river, she began to experience an odd sensation in the her nose--like something was moving back there... And it turns out there was. After visiting with a local physician about the problem, researchers realized that the girl had inadvertently 'discovered' a rather nasty species of leech, previously unknown to biologists. According to them, the leech is a bit different from other species in that it packs a wallop of a bite with the eight "enormous teeth" that line its single jaw

Things start to get complicated when you consider their life cycle. Let's start with a feeding animal living on a lobster's mouthparts: this individual – it's hard to assign a sex – can then produce one of three kinds of offspring: a "Pandora" larva, a "Prometheus" larva or a female.

The Pandora larva develops into another feeding adult – a straightforward case of asexual reproduction. By contrast, the female remains inside the adult and awaits a male – but, attentive readers will be crying, what male?

The answer lies in the Prometheus larva. This attaches itself to another feeding adult, then produces two or three males from within itself. These dwarf males, which are even more internally complex than the other stages, seek out the females and fertilise them – though the details are unknown.

Once the female has been fertilised, she leaves the adult's body and hunkers down in a sheltered region of the lobster's mouthparts. Her body, no longer needed, turns into a hard cyst. Inside this, a fertilised egg develops into yet another stage: the chordoid larva.

In due course this larva hatches and swims off to colonise another lobster. Once it has attached itself to one, it develops into another adult and the cycle begins again.

...Linnaeus's two-toed sloths Choloepus didactylus at the Estación Biológica Quebrada Blanco in north-eastern Peru have developed the delightful habit of climbing into an outdoor latrine building, seeking out the latrine contents AND EATING THEM ...

Apparently crows are quite a problem over there, because they use telegraph wires to build their nests. For a while there was a policy of destroying these nests. The crows then started to build decoy nests. ]]>
It's a Sick World: Weird Biology info-dump threadhttp://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=237895#Comment_237895
http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=237895#Comment_237895Wed, 12 May 2010 14:50:48 -0500Kosmopolit
Parasitic wasp produces larvae that are in essence biological weapons

At just 1 millimetre long, the wasp Copidosoma floridanum hardly looks like it's the source of a devastating clone army that devours its victims from the inside out. The army can only manage this because it employs self-sacrificing child soldiers – having no prospect of growing to adulthood, they sacrifice themselves to protect their siblings.

This epic battle takes place inside a caterpillar called the cabbage looper, an agricultural pest that lays its eggs one at a time on the surfaces of leaves. Once laid the egg is vulnerable – if found by a female Copidosoma she will lay one or two eggs in it.

One egg might not sound so bad, but this is no ordinary egg. It is polyembryonic, meaning that the single embryo cell at its heart can repeatedly clone itself. As a result, just one egg can produce up to 2000 offspring....Once the host embryo develops into a caterpillar, the Copidosoma clones form an army. Yet the clones are not identical. Instead they are divided into castes, just like bees in a hive.

The most common caste of larvae is essentially maggots. They feed by drinking the host caterpillar's blood and, all being well, eventually emerge and become adult wasps. They are called reproductive larvae and there could be 1000 in a single caterpillar.

The second caste is the precocious larvae. These develop earlier than the reproductive larvae – hence their name – and they look quite different, with a thinner body and larger mandibles. They have no sex cells and will never become adults or reproduce. These are the child soldiers.

Copidosoma larvae may well find themselves sharing the caterpillar's body with competing parasites laid by another species of wasp. The precocious larvae are there to kill these competitors, and are produced in greater numbers if competitors are detected.

This turns out to be a pretty effective way of dealing with competing species, but the precocious larvae face other threats too. If more than one Copidosoma egg is laid in the same host, the two armies go to war.

Shaped like flying saucers, both males and females of the new jellyfish have gonads on the outsides of their bodies, unlike any of the approximately 3,000 other jellyfish species known to science .Gonads are the reproductive glands that produce sperm in males and eggs in females.Arranged in a "crater" at the center of the jellyfish's top side, the gonads, upon close inspection, resemble "skyscrapers in a downtown business district," said Lisa-Ann Gershwin, curator of zoology at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery in Launceston, Australia.

It just... is a dickheaded shark. ]]>
It's a Sick World: Weird Biology info-dump threadhttp://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=261309#Comment_261309
http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=261309#Comment_261309Mon, 20 Sep 2010 16:15:41 -0500Brandon Seifert
the parasitoid wasps that spawn a eusocial army of cloned 'soldiers' that patrol their host and keep it free from competing larvae

Turns out there's a species of trematode flat worms that are not only eusocial, they've developed a similar tactic of asexually producing an army of sterile soldiers.

Scientists at UC Santa Barbara have discovered a caste of genetically identical "warrior worms" -- members of a parasitic fluke species that invades the California horn snail.

The findings are reported in the early online version of the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

"We have discovered flatworms in colonies with vicious, killer morphs defending the colony," said Armand M. Kuris, professor of zoology, in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology. "These flukes have a strongly developed social organization, much like some insects, mammals and birds." The tiny warrior worms are only a couple of millimeters in length, yet they are powerful thanks to relatively large mouths.

These worms form colonies in snails. Reproductive worms and soldier worms cooperate to grow and defend their colony within the snail. These two types of individuals look and behave differently, explained first author Ryan F. Hechinger, assistant research biologist with UCSB's Marine Science Institute. The warrior worms attack other invasive parasites trying to invade the snail.

[...]

These colonies also act like an immune system, defending the body of the snail from other fluke infections, said second author Alan C. Wood, a marine science lab manager at UCSB. The soldiers behave like white blood cells; they attack other unrelated flukes, biting and killing them.

These flukes with soldier castes may also have a biomedical application. They might be used in the biological control of major human parasitic diseases such as blood flukes. There are 200 million cases of blood fluke diseases worldwide, said Kuris. The soldier worms might eliminate infections from forming in the snail hosts, preventing infections in humans. Liver flukes might also be controlled.

It's an Anemone stinkhorn (Aseroe rubra, meaning "disgusting red"). That sticky brown stuff in the middle? It's called the gleba, and gives off a delightful odour of rotting flesh (thankfully this one didn't smell of anything much due to recent rain).

Satirist Stephen Colbert envisions his “Colbert Nation” mentally marching in lockstep with his special brand of patriotism. But scientists have done him one better, by creating tiny worm-bots completely under their control.

Rather than comedic persuasion, these scientists are using a dot of laser light. With it they can make a worm turn left, freeze or lay an egg. The researchers report their work online Jan. 16 in Nature Methods.

The new system, named CoLBeRT for “Controlling Locomotion and Behavior in Real Time,” doesn’t just create a mindless zombie-worm, though. It gives scientists the ability to pick apart complicated behaviors on a cell-by-cell basis.

[...] Transparent and small, the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is particularly amenable to light-based mind control. Another benefit of the worm is that researchers know the precise location of all 302 of its nerve cells. But until now, there wasn’t a good way to study each cell by itself, especially in a wriggling animal.

“This tool allows us to go in and poke and prod at those neurons in an animal as it’s moving, and see exactly what each neuron does,” says study co-author Andrew Leifer of Harvard University.

The system is based on the emerging field of optogenetics, in which light is used to turn cells on or off. Leifer and his colleagues genetically engineered light-responsive molecules into particular groups of cells in the worm.

Then, a computer program that the team developed figures out where in the microscope’s field of view a target cell is. Once the cell is pinpointed, the program directs lasers so that a tiny beam of light hits the cell.

Researchers believe that the rocks containing these fossils, found in southern Anhui Provence, date between 635 million and 580 million years ago. The new types of organisms discovered in them include two that are fan-shaped, as long as 2 inches (5 centimeters), and resemble seaweed, as well as three other new types of organisms that are difficult to classify as animal or plant.

BUT MORE IMPORTANT, from that same article:

Until now, scientists had thought the oldest collection of fossils of large, complex life forms was the Avalon assemblage, dating back to about 579 million to 565 million years ago. It contained equally strange and unclassifiable organisms called rangeomorphs.

Baculoviruses infect invertebrates, with each species of virus typically infecting only one species of host. Caterpillars are a particularly favorite target; the insects swallow baculoviruses sprinkled on the leaves they munch. (“How did the viruses get there?” you may ask. Very good question–which we’ll get to in good time.)

Once inside the caterpillar, a baculovirus infects a host cell. The cell produces huge numbers of new baculoviruses. They come in two forms. Some of the viruses can slip out of the host cell on their own to infect new cells. Others stay in the cell, which makes huge quantities of a viral protein called polyhedrin. The viruses become embedded in massive polyhedrin blocks, like fruits in a fruitcake. A caterpillar may produce 10 million viruses from swallowing a single viral fruitcake. It even becomes visibly swollen with all its new viruses.

Soon the virus-packed host gets an uncontrollable urge to creep its way to the tops of plants, where it clamps on tight, hanging down as shown in the picture above. In fact, scientists noticed these strange death throes long before they knew that baculoviruses that caused it. They dubbed it tree-top disease.

After an infected caterpillar takes its position at the top of a plant, the virus releases an enzyme that literally makes the animal dissolve. The tough viral fruitcakes come tumbling out, landing on leaves below where they can infect a new host.

Hearing about tree-top disease gave me a deep sense of deja vu. A number of very different parasites have evolved the same strategy for getting to new hosts. Just a couple weeks ago, for example, I blogged about a fungus that sends its ant hosts to the undersides of leaves, whereupon the fungus sprouts branches out of the ant’s head and showers spores down on new victims. Lancet flukes send their hosts up to the tips of grass blades so that they can be eaten by grazing cows and sheep. It’s fascinating that even a virus–with just a few genes–can trigger this behavior as well.

...Vitargent combined the green fluorescent protein gene from jellyfish and spliced it into the genome of the fish directly next to a gene that detects oestrogen. Chemicals that have oestrogen-like activity cause the 1mm long fish larvae to express the modified gene, making them glow. The higher the concentration of oestrogen, the brighter the glow.

And since I didn't say it before, that turtle's a dick. He waits until the mouse almost has reached sweet, sweet air and then yanks him back down. Pure reptile douchebaggery that. ]]>
It's a Sick World: Weird Biology info-dump threadhttp://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=317932#Comment_317932
http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=317932#Comment_317932Tue, 06 Dec 2011 13:43:10 -0600Greasemonkey
This is the video Vornaskotti was referencing. DO NOT click the link if you're freaked out by horrifying gore. I'm not kidding. ]]>
It's a Sick World: Weird Biology info-dump threadhttp://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=317934#Comment_317934
http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=317934#Comment_317934Tue, 06 Dec 2011 13:59:06 -0600RenThingThank you for linking and the warning. Is appreciated. ]]>
It's a Sick World: Weird Biology info-dump threadhttp://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=317949#Comment_317949
http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=317949#Comment_317949Tue, 06 Dec 2011 16:10:36 -0600Brandon SeifertIt's a Sick World: Weird Biology info-dump threadhttp://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=317957#Comment_317957
http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=317957#Comment_317957Tue, 06 Dec 2011 18:49:53 -0600Vornaskotti"OP here - to all of you who pointed out that the turtle wasn't cruel, of course it wasn't, it was just having its lunch hour. Was this totally unnatural since someone dropped the mouse in the tank? Uh, what do you think, do animals in the nature pet each other to death while whispering sweet nothings? Right at this second there's ten million cute mice and ducklings and bunnies being torn apart alive while the predator is going "yay, lunch, won't starve to death".

What really got me with this is the blind all-overriding will to live, the goddamn half a mouse swimming to the surface even though it was dead already - and that for me was somehow a cruel joke. It was horrible yet moving in a really heart curdling way.

As for filming all this, and especially making a movie out of it with a metal soundtrack (someone in here said that was the source of the gif) - yeaaaah, that's pretty suspect. When you keep certain animals, you end up having to feed them live things (I've had reptiles, for example), but you really shouldn't be getting off about it hard enough to turn it into a little home movie.

Brandon put something similar to this in the 2009 thread but here's a real-life example that's a little different. It seems that the baby's not that badly affected and just needs regular moisture...AQUAMAN, ANYONE??

...ok, maybe not, but a cool mutation nonetheless.

I like the line:

The 11-month-old Gippsland boy was born in a shiny membrane, similar to plastic wrap, which he shed bit by bit over his first few weeks of life.

Cordyceps fungi invades its hosts (mainly arthropods), and its mycelium eventually replaces the host's tissue. Once the arthropod is dead, cylindrical or branching growths emerge from the creature's dead body. Some species also have mind-control capabilities, convincing the host to travel to a place where the fungus will find optimal growth conditions before the host dies. If you haven't seen it yet, this video from Planet Earth shows a Cordyceps fungus in action:

A. eiselti is the largest tetrapod to lack lungs, double the size of the next largest.Caecilians such as Atretochoana are limbless amphibians with a snake-like body, marked with rings like that of earthworms. It has significant morphological differences from other caecilians, even the genera most closely related to it, despite the fact that those genera are aquatic. The skull is very different from those of other caecilians, giving the animal a broad flat head. Its nostrils are sealed, and it has an enlarged mouth with a mobile cheek. Its body has a fleshy dorsal fin.

Most caecilians have a well-developed right lung and a relictual left lung. Some, such as Atretochoana's relatives, have two well-developed lungs. Atretochoana, however, entirely lacks lungs, and has a number of other features associated with lunglessness, including sealed choanae, and an absence of pulmonary arteries. Its skin is filled with capillaries that penetrate the epidermis, allowing gas exchange. Its skull shows evidence of muscles not found in any other organism. The Vienna specimen of Atretochoana is a large caecilian at a length of 72.5 centimetres (28.5 in), while the Brasília specimen is larger still at 80.5 centimetres (31.7 in). By comparison, caecilians range in length from 11 to 160 centimetres (4.3 to 63 in).

I, for one, welcome our new crustacean overlords. ]]>
It's a Sick World: Weird Biology info-dump threadhttp://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=341762#Comment_341762
http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=341762#Comment_341762Sat, 06 Oct 2012 09:56:59 -0500Wood
This thing showed up on my tumblr dash and i thought I should share because why should I be the only one to get nightmares?

A, schmatic representing the linkages that form the feeding position of dragonfishes and utilization of the occipital-vertebral hinge to create high gape angles. B, head-on view of Malacosteus niger, demonstrating its hypothesized feeding position (sensu Günther & Deckert, 1959). ph, protractor hyoideus.

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It's a Sick World: Weird Biology info-dump threadhttp://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=342123#Comment_342123
http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=342123#Comment_342123Sat, 13 Oct 2012 23:13:19 -0500KosmopolitParatrechalea Ornata is a small spider living in South America. It shares its habitat with th closely-related species Paratrechalea Azul.

Closely-related as in even the spiders seem to have trouble telling each other apart - which is a bit of a problem seeing as both species practise sexual cannibalism.

Considering how rare it is for animals to be captured in amber and that the two samples are from 50 million years apart and involve totally different species this beheavior, which has never been observed in living specimens, is probably common. ]]>
It's a Sick World: Weird Biology info-dump threadhttp://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=342694#Comment_342694
http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=342694#Comment_342694Thu, 25 Oct 2012 15:06:39 -0500Ben Gwalchmai
fish out there.

Delivered in the scientific deadpan required of such papers, the Aquatic Mammals report attributes the incidents to three male sea otters “observed harassing, dragging, guarding, and copulating with harbor seals,” persisting for up to seven days after the otters killed the objects of their misguided advances. The ordeal must have been horrific for the seals. The victims that were necropsied by veterinarians had lesions around the nose, eyes, flippers, and genitals, including perforations in the vaginal and rectal tracts.

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It's a Sick World: Weird Biology info-dump threadhttp://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=360156#Comment_360156
http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=360156#Comment_360156Fri, 15 Nov 2013 14:15:32 -0600FlabyoSome years back I saw some Attenborough thing about British garden birds, and it showed a scene where a male sparrow knocks up a female then flies off, another male comes over and uses his beak to remove the previous males sperm from the female before having a go himself. This repeats with several more males.

If you live in Europe, you'll be familiar with that cute little bird, commonly seen in gardens and feeding stations :

The tits’ behaviour was not opportunistic: they specifically searched for hibernating bats, using both auditory and visual cues, and then pulled them out of their roosting cavities and pecked them to death [see gory photo below]

3. It's still a monster bug, and Napoleon never stood a chance. ]]>
It's a Sick World: Weird Biology info-dump threadhttp://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=369153#Comment_369153
http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6769&Focus=369153#Comment_369153Tue, 13 Jan 2015 00:32:21 -0600WoodA scientist chose to give birth to a bot fly larva so that he could film the whole process. "video not for the squeamish" as you might expect.

Why is it that an animal that is actively trying to kill us, such as a lion, gets more respect than one that is only trying to nibble on us a little, without causing much harm?